Mel laughed as Gwen and Thomas examined their new equipment with obvious joy. Halfway through the process, Thomas joined in to help her, but he didn’t have her [Blood Tax] title. Not that it mattered. They quickly ran out of animal blood to use, and nobody was stupid enough to use theirs.

“The joys of being a ritual-dumb Brawler,” Gwen said, watching a new batch of scrap get converted on the runic diagram.

“The imprint increased,” Thomas said with a broad smile. “I thought I would have to retire this wand. Thanks, Mel.”

“What else are friends for?”

Gwen just about tackled her in a hug. “Exactly!” She spun in place and bounced Mel around, the shorter woman’s feet dangling over the floor. Mel endured the affection, reminding herself that it came from a good place.

Still not a fan of being swung around like a doll.

“Your title,” Thomas began, “you gained that from somebody I take it?”

“Why do you say that?” Mel asked cagily.

Thomas laughed, waving away her evasion. “I’m not judging. Gwen and I also received titles from killing somebody with one. Though, I must say, they aren’t nearly as useful as yours.”

“I imagine you could get a lot more use out of my [Blood Tax] than I could,” Mel agreed.

“I’d trade my title for that in an instant,” Gwen admitted. She finally let Mel go and stepped away to begin replacing some of her armor right in front of them.

Mel struggled not to laugh. Not at Gwen, but at how the tables were turned. When she had been with her friends, they were startled at her blaise attitude about nudity and changing in front of them.

Clearly, it was a Magi thing.

“Full moon’s out tonight,” Mel said with a snort.

“You have no idea.” Thomas laughed.

“Yeah, yeah, you don’t gotta look,” Gwen said, hardly bothered.

Thomas crouched down and studied the frame that held blood for the ritual. “Having to carry around blood would be a pain. I do fine enough on my own, but it would be interesting to see how some of my spells change with [Blood Tax]. If you’d be interested, I would like to teach you ones you might find useful. Consider it a repayment.”

For a brief moment, Mel’s dark thoughts latched onto the very real threat that Thomas posed to her. If he killed her, he would have [Blood Tax] and could see firsthand exactly what it did.

He’d have the fight of his life if he dared to try, Mel thought.

The fact that he didn’t seem to consider the possibility, and instead used the opportunity to repay her, set her mind at ease.

“I take it you can’t learn F-Tier spells?” Thomas asked.

Mel shook her head. “G-Tier only.”

“Hmm. That’s less than half my repertoire, but we’ll soldier on. Oh! Maybe I can help train your ritual skill. That way, I wouldn’t have to be limited to G-Tier.”

“I would love that,” Mel admitted. It was hard to train something when you only had one spell, but it was clear that Thomas knew of a way to do it without repeatedly using the scrap spell over and over.

Not only did it hardly seem to be difficult to use anymore, which would tank any sort of runes of experience she might gain, it took materials that she didn’t always have on hand.

“If we’re ready?” Thomas asked, looking at them both.

“Ready.”

“Let’s go,” Gwen said, taking out her wrecking ball and bashing up the barricade into rubble with all the glee of a child knocking over toy blocks.

“You didn’t have to do that,” Thomas said. “That could have blocked enemies from getting to us.”

Gwen looked legitimately confused. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Thomas opened his mouth to counter but shut it. A smile tugged at his lips. “You’re right.”

Mel had expected something more serious and even a little condescending from Thomas. Not that she thought poorly of him, but he seemed the strategist of the duo.

Thomas was right, enemies could come in behind them and cut them off. For some reason, Mel found herself agreeing with Gwen. The more monsters they fought, the better, right?

As they headed deeper into the tomb, with Gwen as the vanguard, Mel struggled to come to terms with her new predicament.

It didn’t take long for Gwen and Thomas to start joking and laughing while killing monsters. They acted like a pair of kids.

In short, the sort of people Mel normally took pleasure in being around. Ones that found enjoyment rather than misery in fighting.

It was a dramatic, jarring contrast compared to exploring with anyone else.

Thomas pointed his wand, calling out his kills. “Bolt of lightning off the dome up there, grounding in that zombie’s metal helm spike, then into the pool of water to kill the other three zombies who are totally going to get up the moment we get close enough.”

Gwen folded her arms. “No shot. You can’t ricochet a bolt of–”

The words died on her lips as Thomas conjured a bolt of lightning in his fist and threw it like a javelin of pure crackling light.

He must be pretty fond of throwing things. This is his second aspect skill that’s thrown like a spear.

Aspect Skill: [Thunderbolt]

The lightning streaked toward the ceiling, kissed the dome, leaving a smoldering patch, then ricocheted down into the metal spike of the zombie just rising to its feet.

Electricity surged and rolled through the corpse’s body. Its limbs jerked out spasmodically, like it was doing the worst impression of Thriller Mel had ever seen.

The surrounding corpses in the pool of water were jolted and danced along with the main zombie until the effect left them as limp burned-out shells.

Runes poured out from the monsters, flowing into Thomas and the others.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Gwen sauntered over to the pool, hands on her wide hips, watching the zombies collapse with a lighthearted pout.

Mel frowned, unsure why she or Gwen got any runes at all. They hadn’t helped. She’d seen that before, where when she killed a monster, another person allied with her gained runes.

Otherwise Sabrina and the others wouldn’t have gotten nearly as much progress as they did…

Mel shut the thought out by shouldering aside Gwen and Thomas. More undead were beginning to rise from their crypts and alcoves, shuffling their way toward them. Several of them with serpentine lower halves.

She pointed with the tip of her frostbite twinblade. “Three heads decapitated in one attack.”

Gwen and Thomas looked doubtful, even a little worried. “They’re more than ten feet apart,” Thomas pointed out.

Mel’s grin looked more like a grimace. “And?”

Thomas smiled encouragingly at her. “I’ll take that action.”

Gwen’s eyes sparkled as the large woman leaned forward. “I want to see you try, little Melody.”

Mel glared at her, but didn’t rise to the bait. She took a deep breath, concentrated, and focused her attention on the three zombies she had pointed out.

Pulling back her arm, Mel whipped her twinblade out, twisting at the same time to provide it with just the right amount of spin.

She had spent countless hours training against a throw like this to simulate combat. Now she was using all her training to use it as an attack.

It was a terrible idea. Even though she had another weapon, it was a cold hard truth that you couldn’t dismiss a weapon that wasn’t in your hand. Which meant you just threw your weapon away like an asshole.

Her twinblade turned into a blue blur as it streaked through the shuffling dead, nicking one or two as it narrowly avoided them.

One, two, then three heads tossed into the air, landing together in a lopsided heap. The zombies’ bodies shambled forward a few steps before they collapsed.

You defeat (3) [Tomb Zombies (Copper Rank)].

You gain runes of Divine, Mist, Blood, Serpent, and Omen aspect experience.

Mel folded her arms and waited. Gwen actually clapped for Mel’s display, and the two of them tossed Mel some [Copper Rune Coins].

For a little while, Mel could forget what she had been through. With a slight grin, she pocketed the coins.

Without the immediate threat of death bearing down on them, the three Magi did what Magi did best: they experimented.

Most monsters in the tomb revived if they weren’t killed with powerful elemental attacks or their heads were damaged beyond repair.

In the case of the three headless zombies, they had shambled far enough away from their heads that they were beyond the reviving magic’s sphere of influence.

“I should’ve declined out of technicality,” Thomas pointed out as he thrust his wand forward and a bolt of electricity flashed out to fry the eyes out from the skull of an approaching zombie.

“Ugh,” Gwen said. “I wish you wouldn’t do that. It looks like runny eggs coming out of their face holes.”

“And the smell,” Mel said, wrinkling her nose.

Gwen nodded, eyes watering. She pinched her nose. “It’s so bad for me.”

“It’s effective,” Thomas argued. “Besides, I haven’t used this wand since we killed that cultist and nabbed it off his corpse.”

“Too bad he didn’t revive like that other one,” Gwen said. “Would have been glad to put him back into the dirt.”

“What’s it do?” Mel asked, picking up her twinblade off the ground and dismissing her backup.

Thomas smiled, holding up the wand of smooth, twisted wood. “Wands normally have a simple ranged attack. This one lets me tap into my aspects. I can use any aspect I possess to give the wand’s ordinary attack a mana type.”

He twisted like a ballroom dancer and thrust the wand out. A stream of brilliant light made Mel wince and wish she was still using her [Gaze of the Serpent].

“Sunlight,” Thomas explained as the beam of light turned the head of a nearby zombie to ash. “Particularly effective against undead.”

With an underhanded swing of his wand arm, he clapped his wrist and braced it like he was struggling against something far larger than his slim wand.

A gout of flames shot out, roasting the nearest zombie and filling the room with the smell of charred, rotting meat. “Summer–ack, gods that’s foul.”

Gwen turned to the side and retched. “Thomas!” she bellowed, wiping the edge of her mouth. “I’m going to shove that wand somewhere the Sunlight doesn’t shine if you don’t stop showing off!” She hacked out a cough again. “Agh! It’s in my mouth .”

“It’s bad, but…not that bad, is it?” Mel asked. The smell was horrendous, but Gwen’s sense of smell couldn’t have been that much higher than hers, could it?

“For me it is!” Gwen cried.

“Is your sense stat really high?” Mel asked.

Gwen flushed slightly at that. “Well, no. It’s not that great, but [Insight of the Wolf] heightens my already supernaturally sharp sense of smell.”

Mel wondered why that was.

Thomas patted her on the shoulder. “I’ll stop. Besides, my other two essences aren’t nearly as cool.”

Gwen still glared at him.

Given Thomas’ playful grin, it didn’t seem like he was going to stop for too long.

“Likely only Charlie and Shrubley are better at slaying undead than you,” Gwen said, shaking her head to clear the smell. “That wand has an incredible imprint. You’d think an ember might do that, but I haven’t found one that matches one of my aspects so far.”

“I have,” Mel said idly, raising her hand and tossing a black sphere into a group of rising serpentine zombies and skeletons. She heard their bones and skin burn with dark lesions from where she stood.

[Bane of Tartarus]

(Omen Aspect)

(Copper, Yellow/Ability)

(Grade 5 [31%])

Cost: Modest

Cooldown: Moderate

Weave together omen curses from the pits of Tartarus into an abyssal swirling sphere of compressed malice. Let the song of the damned ring out for all.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Call upon the power of Tartarus itself, launching a swirling mass of malice like a meteor from your hand. Deals heavy Omen area damage, reduces maximum health, and lowers movement speed.

With the monsters still burning from the Omen curse, their movements nearly ground to a halt, Gwen clobbered all of them with a wild swing of her ball-and-chain.

“Really, which ember is that?” Gwen asked Mel with piqued interest. She didn’t even bother to look at the one undead that had lagged behind the others.

“Blood,” Mel said, frowning to herself. [Bane of Tartarus] was her only straightforward attack, and it still didn’t outrightly kill these things.

Thomas did mention that Sunlight was effective against them. Could that mean my Omen is less effective since it deals with the dead and curses?

“Little wonder you’re so good at ritual magic then!” Gwen said. “Maybe we could trade some aspect coins later?”

Thomas stepped up between them and leveled his wand. “Ladies.” He blasted the head off the surviving zombie with a burst of Sunlight from his wand. He turned to Gwen with a dazzling smile. “See? No smell. All that wondrous UV!”

“It’s a good thing Miranda Haalften isn’t here,” Gwen said with a snicker. “I don’t think she’d appreciate that aspect very much.”